Line #31 UsefulNotes/Russia


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rs-map.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:It's very big.]]
3
4
5	->''Russia! what a marvelous phenomenon on the world scene! Russia - a distance of ten thousand versts *[[note]]a verst is a traditional Russian unit of distance roughly equivalent to a kilometer; because of that, in modern usage a verst is a kilometer, or a more archaic synonym thereof[[/note]] in length on a straight line from the virtually central European river, across all of Asia and the Eastern Ocean, down to the remote American lands! A distance of five thousand versts in width from Persia, one of the southern Asiatic states,[[note]]Russia no longer borders Persia/UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} today. Also, while Iran is to the south of Russia, it is nowhere near the southern half of Asia.[[/note]] to the end of the inhabited world - to the North Pole. What state can equal it? Its half? How many states can match its twentieth, its fiftieth part?… Russia - a state which contains all types of soil, from the warmest to the coldest, from the burning environs of Erivan[[note]]now belonging to UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}}[[/note]] to icy Lapland[[note]]now belonging to UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}[[/note]]; which abounds in all the products required for the needs, comforts, and pleasures of life, in accordance with its present state of development - a whole world, self-sufficient, independent, absolute.''
6	-->-- '''Mikhail Pogodin''' (1800-1875)
7
8	Russia ('''Russian:''' ''Россия'', ''Rossiya''), also known as the Russian Federation ('''Russian:''' ''Российская Федерация'', ''Rossiyskaya Federatsiya''), is an Eastern European and North Asian country spreading all the way from Norway and Poland to Japan and the US state of Alaska. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects and two territories disputed with Ukraine. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}, UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}}, UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} (both with Kaliningrad Oblast), UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}, UsefulNotes/GeorgiaEurope, UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}}, UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}}, and UsefulNotes/NorthKorea. It shares maritime borders with UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} by the Sea of Okhotsk and the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates U.S.]] state of UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}} across the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the world's ninth most populous nation with over 146 million people as of 2020. Extending across the entirety of North Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms.
9
10	The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Varangian warrior elite]] and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.
11
12	Following [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober the Russian Revolution and Red victory in the 1917-23 Civil War]], the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], the world's first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower, which played a decisive role in the Allied victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first spacecraft, and the first astronaut. The Russian Federation became the successor state of the Russian SFSR following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Union state.
13
14	The Russian economy ranks as the eighth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, have made it one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the [[UsefulNotes/GroupOfEight G8]] (currently suspended), G20, BRICS, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the UsefulNotes/ShanghaiCooperationOrganisation, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
15
16
17	'''Rossiyane and Russkie'''
18
19	There are two words in Russian that mean "Russians:"
20	* ''Rossiyane'' -- Citizens of the Russian Federation and the RSFSR before that. An unpopular label in Russia, mostly used in government propaganda. Most Russians draw a sharp distinction between ethnic Russian and minority, and it goes even sharper with time as ethnonationalistic sentiments rise.
21	* ''Russkie'' -- Ethnic Russians. Were called "Great Russians" (''Velikorossy'') before 1917 (not used today, except for historical purposes). Pronounced "ROOS-skee-yeh", and it's important: pronouncing it the English way turns the word into a slur.
22	** Old generalized distinctive terms are: ''Great'' Russia (now just "Russia,") ''Small'' Russia ("Malorossia," now "Ukraine,") ''White'' Russia (verbatim: "Belorussia,") and ''New'' Russia ("Novorossia," now Southern Russia and some parts of eastern and south Ukraine, including an unrecognized rebel confederacy of this very name, also known as the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk or LDNR).[[note]]As a result, even ''saying'' "Novorossia" is offensive to many ethnic Ukrainians, especially Ukrainian nationalists.[[/note]] Derivative terms refers to inhabitants of those territories. E.g. even if semi-nomadic Don UsefulNotes/{{Cossacks}} ethnically were ''not'' exactly the same as their neighbours, they still lived in "Small Russia" (Creator/NikolaiGogol who lived there used this common term when it was relevant). This is why the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia tsar]] was referred to as "Emperor and Autocrat of ''All the Russias''."
23
24	These two designations obviously don't overlap 100%. When it becomes necessary to distinguish between the two, the Russian words will be used.
25
26	While we are discussing the ethnic question, the racial one has to be mentioned as well. Are Russians Caucasian or Asian? A large part of ''Rossiyane'' are Asian, especially the so called "Minor Nations" (malye narody) of Siberia. ''Russkie'' are Caucasian. Western Russia is settled by ethnic Russians and various Finnic and Caucasoid minorities who are also Caucasian, and most Asian-descended minorities of European Russia such as the Tatars and the Bashkirs also look pretty white. In Siberia, the white ethnic Russians are a majority, and the Minor Nations an overall minority (though there are many regions in Siberia where the native Siberians such as the Yakut people are a majority). Afro-Russians exist but they are a tiny minority, mostly descendants of naturalized Africans from former Soviet client states.
27
28	There is little to no tension between white Russians and Asian native Siberians. The touchy racial issues in Russia involve people from the North Caucasus and immigrants from Central Asia.
29
30	[[index]]
31
32	[[foldercontrol]]
33
34	[[folder: Administrative divisions]]
35	!!Federal Subjects
36	* UsefulNotes/TheGloriousFederalSubjects
37
38	Aside from them, Russia administers two more territories which aren't federal subjects: the town of Barentsburg on UsefulNotes/{{Svalbard}}, Norway and the town and space launch facility of Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The proposed new Constitution of 2020 has a special definition for territories without federal subject status: "federal territories" (федеральные территории) are to be governed directly by the Kremlin, without devolved powers. Presumably, once the new constitution will be in effect, new federal territories will be created, including closed cities, natural preserves, offshore zones and Arctic islands.
39
40	!What is Siberia?
41
42	The precise territory defined as Siberia varies depending on who you ask. Western sources usually call the entirety of Asian Russia Siberia. In geography, Siberia is the part of Asian Russia east of the Ural Mountains and west of the watershed between Arctic and Pacific basins, and the Pacific basin is called the Russian [[UsefulNotes/TheFarEast Far East]] (Dalniy Vostok). The Urals and the Russian Far East aren't Siberia. The geographical Siberia is subdivided into Western Siberia (the lowland swampy region in the Ob-Irtysh basin and the highlands around the sources of the Ob, including the Altai Mountains), Eastern Siberia (the highland area between the rivers Yenisei and Lena, including Lake Baikal and the Transbaikal) and Northeast Siberia (the mountainous, bitterly cold region between the Lena and the Pacific watershed).
43
44	In administrative terms, only the Siberian Federal District is called Siberia. However, the inhabitants of Surgut or Khanty-Mansiysk are emphatic in that their region is not the Urals, and most Transbaikalians and Yakuts agree that they live in Siberia. The question of whether Northeast Siberia is Siberia is more complicated, because the economic capital of the region, Magadan, is located on the Pacific coast and therefore unarguably in the Russian Far East, and there are no cities or large towns in Northeast Siberia proper.
45
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder: Culture]]
49	* EasternEuropeanAnimation (Includes Russian/Soviet animation)
50	* RussianFilms
51	* RussianLiterature
52	* RussianMedia
53	* RussianVideoGames
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder: Geography]]
57	!!Geography
58	* UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}
59	** UsefulNotes/MoscowMetro
60	* UsefulNotes/SaintPetersburg (AKA Leningrad/Petrograd)
61	* UsefulNotes/OtherRussianTownsAndCities
62	* UsefulNotes/ClosedCities
63	* TheGulag
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder: History]]
67	!!History
68	* UsefulNotes/KievanRus
69	* UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia
70	** UsefulNotes/TsarTsarAutocrats - A list of Tsars for the entirety of the country's history as a monarchy.
71	*** UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible
72	*** UsefulNotes/NicholasII
73	** UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova
74	** UsefulNotes/GrigoriRasputin
75	* The Russian ''Revolutions''
76	** UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions
77	** UsefulNotes/RedOctober
78	* UsefulNotes/SovietUnion (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
79	** UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheUSSR
80	** UsefulNotes/JosefStalin
81	** GloriousMotherRussia - The HollywoodAtlas version
82	** UsefulNotes/TheSoviet20s
83	** UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre (The KGB)
84	* UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia
85	** TheMafiya
86	** UsefulNotes/SpellOurNameWithAPo (Russian police)
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder: Politics]]
90	!!Politics
91	* UsefulNotes/RussianHeadsOfState
92	* UsefulNotes/RussianPoliticalSystem
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder: Military]]
96	!!Military
97	* UsefulNotes/{{Cossacks}}
98	* UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRifles (The Imperial Russian military)
99	* UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets (The Soviet military)
100	** [[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes Mnogo Nukes]]
101	** ThePoliticalOfficer
102	* ReportingNames
103	* UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets (The post-1991 Russian military)
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder: Language]]
107	!!Language
108	* UsefulNotes/CyrillicAlphabet
109	* UsefulNotes/RussianLanguage
110	* UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention
111	** UsefulNotes/{{Patronymic}}
112	* UsefulNotes/RussianProverbsAndExpressions
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder: Mythology and Religion]]
116	!!Mythology and Religion
117	* Myth/AinuMythology
118	* UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity
119	* Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales
120	* Myth/SiberianMythology
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder: Traditions and Customs]]
124	!!Traditions and Customs
125	* UsefulNotes/{{Dacha}}
126	* UsefulNotes/PostSovietEducationalSystem
127	* RussianFashion
128	* UsefulNotes/RussianHolidays
129	** UsefulNotes/ChristmasIsBourgeois
130	* RussianHumour
131	** RussianReversal, although the underlying transpositional pun turns out to predate [[MemeticMutation Soviet Russia]] by [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples several centuries]].
132	* UsefulNotes/RussianReading
133	* UsefulNotes/RussianRelaxing
134	** TabletopGame/{{Preferans}}
135	* RussianRoulette (Note: Might not be actually Russian.)
136	* SocialistRealism
137	* ThatRussianSquatDance
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Other]]
141	* UsefulNotes/GermanRussians - for information about Russia and the Soviet Union's historically significant German population.
142	[[/folder]]
143	[[/index]]
144
145	----
146	[[AC:The Russian flag]]
147	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_russia_7.png]]
148	->After the fall of the USSR, Russia reused the colors of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, which had no specific meanings. Tradition says that Tsar Peter the Great, a great admirer of the Dutch Republic, took the Dutch flag for inspiration and simply reordered the colors to create the Russian tricolor.
149	----
150	[[AC:Coat of arms of Russia]]
151	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2000px_coat_of_arms_of_the_russian_federationsvg.png]]
152	->The coat of arms was adopted in 1993 and it is the derived from the coat of arms of the Russian Empire which itself derived from the the Palaiologos dynasty, the last rulers of the Byzantine Empire.
153	----
154	[[AC:Russian national anthem]]
155
156	->Россия – священная наша держава,
157	->Россия – любимая наша страна.
158	->Могучая воля, великая слава –
159	->Твоё достоянье на все времена!
160
161	->Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
162	->Братских народов союз вековой,
163	->Предками данная мудрость народная!
164	->Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!
165
166	->От южных морей до полярного края
167	->раскинулись наши леса и поля.
168	->Одна ты на свете! Одна ты такая
169	->хранимая Богом родная земля!
170
171	->Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
172	->Братских народов союз вековой,
173	->Предками данная мудрость народная!
174	->Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!
175
176	->Широкий простор для мечты и для жизни
177	->грядущие нам открывают года,
178	->нам силу даёт наша верность отчизне,
179	->так было, так есть и так будет всегда!
180
181	->Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
182	->Братских народов союз вековой,
183	->Предками данная мудрость народная!
184	->Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!
185	[[note]]
186	->Rossiya — svyashchennaya nasha derzhava,
187	->Rossiya — lyubimaya nasha strana.
188	->Moguchaya volya, velikaya slava —
189	->Tvoyo dostoyanye na vse vremena!
190
191	->Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
192	->Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,
193	->Predkami dannaya mudrost' narodnaya!
194	->Slavsya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!
195
196	->Ot yuzhnykh morey do polyarnogo kraya
197	->Raskinulis nashi lesa i polya.
198	->Odna ty na svete! Odna ty takaya —
199	->Khranimaya Bogom rodnaya zemlya!
200
201	->Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
202	->Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,
203	->Predkami dannaya mudrost' narodnaya!
204	->Slavsya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!
205
206	->Shiroky prostor dlya mechty i dlya zhizni
207	->Gryadushchiye nam otkryvayut goda.
208	->Nam silu dayot nasha vernost Otchizne.
209	->Tak bylo, tak yest i tak budet vsegda!
210
211	->Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
212	->Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,
213	->Predkami dannaya mudrost' narodnaya!
214	->Slavsya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!
215	[[/note]]
216
217	--
218
219	->Russia – our holy nation
220	->Russia – our beloved country.
221	->A mighty will, great glory –
222	->These are yours for all time!
223
224	->Be glorious, our free Fatherland,
225	->Age-old union of fraternal peoples,
226	->Popular wisdom given by our forebears!
227	->Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
228
229	->From the southern seas to the polar lands
230	->Spread our forests and fields.
231	->You are unique in the world, one of a kind –
232	->Native land protected by God!
233
234	->Be glorious, our free Fatherland,
235	->Age-old union of fraternal peoples,
236	->Popular wisdom given by our forebears!
237	->Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
238
239	->Wide spaces for dreams and for living
240	->Are opened for us by the coming years
241	->Our loyalty to our Fatherland gives us strength.
242	->Thus it was, thus it is, and thus it will be forever!
243
244	->Be glorious, our free Fatherland,
245	->Age-old union of fraternal peoples,
246	->Popular wisdom given by our forebears!
247	->Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
248	----
249	[[AC:Government]]
250	* Unitary Federal dominant-party semi-presidential constitutional republic
251	** President: Vladimir Putin
252	** Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin
253	** Speaker of Federation Council: Valentina Matviyenko
254	** Speaker of the State Duma: Vyacheslav Volodin
255	** Chief Justice: Vyacheslav Lebedev
256	----
257	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
258	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Moscow
259	* '''Population:''' 146,171,015 (including Crimea) or 143,759,445 (excluding Crimea)
260	* '''Area:''' 17,098,246 km
261	(6,601,670 sq mi) (1st; largest)
262	* '''Currency''': Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)
263	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' RU
264	* '''Country calling code:''' 7
265	* '''Highest point:''' Mount Elbrus (5642 m/18,510 ft) (24th)
266	* '''Lowest point:''' Caspian Sea (−28 m/−92 ft) (17th[[note]]shared with UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} and UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}[[/note]])

Context UsefulNotes / Russia